T. E. Hulme and the Ideological Politics of Early Modernism

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Drawing on a range of archival materials, this book explores the writing career of the poet, philosopher, art critic, and political commentator T.E. Hulme, a key figure in British modernism. T.E. Hulme and the Ideological Politics of Early Modernism reveals for the first time the full extent of Hulme's relationship with New Age, a leading radical journal before the Great War, focussing particularly on his exchange of ideas with its editor, A.R. Orage. Through a ground-breaking account of Hulme's reading in continental literature, and his combative exchanges amongst the bohemian networks of Edwardian London, Mead shows how 'the strange death of Liberal England coincided with Hulmes emergence as what T.S. Eliot called the forerunner of the twentieth century mind'. Tracing his debts to French Symbolism, evolutionary psychology, Neo-Royalism, and philosophical pragmatism, the book shows how Hulme combined anarchist and conservative impulses in his journey towards a religious attitude. The result is a nuanced account of Hulme's ideological politics, complicating the received view of his work as proto-fascist.

Reviews

Meticulously researched ... This is the fullest account yet of Hulme's intellectual engagement with his multiple contexts. * Times Literary Supplement *
Admirers of Hulme will rejoice at Mead's scrupulous reconstruction of this influential modernist's thinking ... T. E. Hulme and the Ideological Politics of Early Modernism is modernist cultural history at its finest, and Mead has given us a book to which Hulme scholars will no doubt refer for many years to come. * Make It New (the periodical of the Ezra Pound Society) *
The breadth of Mead's scope makes this an invaluable study for anyone attempting to understand the problems of modernism, either in its infancy or as it began to be replaced by newer attitudes and thoughts in a much-altered world. Part of the "Historicizing Modernism" series, this book helps readers do exactly that. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers. -- A. J. Barlow, New York City College of Technology (CUNY), USA * CHOICE *
This is a thorough and well-argued account which represents an undoubtedly useful further step on the ongoing reappraisal of Hulme's contribution to the modernist project. * The Year's Work in English Studies *
Meads patient scrutiny ... offers a great deal of welcome clarification. * Marx & Philosophy Review of Books *
The attention paid to Hulmes complex identity is important, and as a result of reading this book, scholars will be able to more fully integrate the detailed analysis of Hulme into their narratives about modernism. * English Literature in Transition *
Meticulous attention to detail ... A timely and valuable contribution to our understanding of both Hulmes ideas and the political discussions that fed into the various modernisms which emerged in the first few decades of the twentieth century. * English Studies *
[A] detailed study ... [The] extrication of multiple strands of thought is one of the most worthwhile enterprises of this study, relevant to Anglo-French modernist studies in general, regardless of any specific interest in Hulme. * Art History *

Author Bio

Henry Mead is a Research Associate at Teesside University, UK, and Bergen University, Norway. He is the co-editor (with Matthew Feldman and Erik Tonning) of Broadcasting in the Modernist Era (Bloomsbury, 2013).